ESSENDON coach Matthew Knights blamed too many lost battles rather than too few soldiers - although in truth the one was linked to the other as the Bombers slipped to a nine-point defeat against the Sydney Swans at the SCG on Sunday.

The Dons lost Brent Stanton to an ankle injury before the game, and he was joined on the club wounded list by in-form ruckman David Hille, who suffered a game-ending hamstring injury in the second quarter, and Angus Monfries - ruled out after pulling a hamstring in the third.

"Structurally it made it difficult," Knights conceded after the match.

"I thought [ruckman] Paddy [Ryder] put in a supreme effort against [Shane] Mumford and [Mike] Pyke.

"The physical effort was great."

The relatively young Essendon outfit stuck with the Swans all day, and the biggest lead for much of the afternoon was seven points. But Knights said the Bombers lacked poise as wet weather made the going tough.

"We were a little bit clumsy at times ... maybe our intelligence ... to choose better options," he said.

"[But] that's not the reason the Swans won the game.

"The one area of the game we've been very good at all year is contested football, but I thought the Swans really handled us in that area today.

"The major positive I took out of it is that with 20 men we kept coming ... kept coming strong. Up until the last four or five minutes the game was there to be had.

"Our back six were outstanding considering they didn’t really rotate in the second half. Michael Hurley, Tayte Pears, Mark McVeigh, Heath Hocking ... they had really strong games for us."